Story+1985-09-23+Denver,+CO

”Here’s uh....here´s a song about, uh....going through, uh....what’s it called, the safety net.....”
 * 23.09.85 Denver, CO, intro to ‘Johnny 99’:**

”We were down....in Texas....on the first part of our American tour....there down in Houston, you’d see a lot of folks...from up north....out of Pittsburgh....out of Detroit... out of Youngstown, Gary, Indiana....would all move south....looking for work....on the oil rigs or in the oil fields....and when they got down there with their wives and their kids....the price of oil dropped....they were laying them off, shutting them off..... there’d be no work.....no place to go.....you’d see ‘em sleeping in tents out on the side of the highway.....or in their cars at night....being told to just move on.....this is called ‘Seeds’....”
 * 23.09.85 Denver, CO, intro to ‘Seeds’:**

”How you doing out there tonight ? (cheers)....oh.....I wanna take a minute and say hope we didn’t inconvenience too many of youse.....that were supposed to come last night.....it’s a lot warmer tonight, right ? (cheers)....(?) but uh....anyway....this kinda reminds me when...I was living at home with my folks...and at the time in my life, when I wasn’t getting along too good with my pop, I used to spend a lot of time..... outside, downtown....in the summertime it wasn’t too bad....but when it got cold like this....cool (chuckles)....my dad, he used to.....he used to lock up the frontdoor at night....and sit in the kitchen with the lights out....smoking a cigarette....waiting to see what time we were gonna come in.....and at the time.....I had like really long hair, right, like there down to my shoulders (cheersr)....I was just 17....and uh....I´d stand out there in that driveway....you know...I’d be standing there in the cold and I’d look inside....I could just see the light of his cigarette....I’d be getting my nerve up to go in the house...and I remember I’d slick my hair back and tuck it....way down inside my collar so he couldn’t tell how long it was.....he used to hate it....I’d get my nerve up and I’d....get up on the porch and.....get through the kitchen and he wouldn’t say nothing....I’d get through the livingroom....my mom’d be sleeping on the couch..... with the TV on....I’d get....just about upstairs and I hear from the kitchen..... ’Bruuce’....(crowd ‘Bruuces’)...he’d be calling my name to come back and sit down with me.....and I’d go back down and I’d sit there.....and for ten to fifteen minutes sometimes we wouldn’t say anything to each other....then finally he’d ask me the same question that he always asked me, he’d say.....’Well, what do you think you’re doing with yourself ?’......and....the worst part about it was....I didn’t know how to explain to him....it was like that old song used to say like trying to tell a stranger about rock and roll (cheers)....but....I didn’t know....what he was doing with himself either....and uh.... at the time I didn’t understand what kinda pressures were on his life....what it was like looking for work all the time....trying to....trying to raise a family, trying to do what you were supposed to do....and it still not working out for you....and not understanding why....you feel like you’re failing....and uh....we just came down.....beginning this stretch of this tour outta Pittsburgh....where....(?) Valley was shutting all the steel mills down.....was a lot of folks.....everywhere who....kinda feel like....their country is sailing away from them.....and leaving ‘em standing on the dock.....and what do you do when your community starts to disappear.....and your family breaks down.....got no job and no place to turn....you end up living in the shadow of a dream and that’s what this song is about (cheers)....”
 * 23.09.85 Denver, CO, intro to ‘The River’:**

”This is uh.....this is a song about relationships, this next song, that’s right....is anybody out there tonight like with a new boyfriend or.....a new girlfriend ?....the weather gives you an excuse to like snuggle up to them.....anybody married out there tonight ? (cheers).....(?)....this is how, you know, I’m speaking from personal experience here (chuckles)....this how you first meet somebody....you know like every-thing they say is brilliant and they look beautiful all the time.....and uh.....like you know you can’t keep your hands off ‘em, you’re making love all the time (cheers)..... two or three times a day.....then like if you’re gonna go out at night to the movies or something, it’s like, uh.....’Honey, what movie do you wanna go see?’.....’Oh, honey, I don’t care, whatever you wanna see’....’I don’t care if we stay home tonight just as long as I’m with you’ (cheers).....yeah....yeah....and then....you know, the girls are like...putting perfume on all them other places besides behind their ears and stuff (cheers)....you know, like you start, you know, taking like about 20 minutes to a half-hour to shave, you know, make sure you got it.....(chuckles) but anyway, you know, then you come back about a year later and it’s like, uh.....’Are we going out tonight or do I have to sit around here and look at your face all night ?’ (laughter)....’Are you gonna make love to me tonight or do we have to wait for the full moon again ?’ (laughter)....no more perfume (?) (chuckles).....oh, damn, I don’t know, why’s that happen, why does it happen ?....anyway....all kinda ends up, uh.....”
 * 23.09.85 Denver, CO, intro to ‘I’m Goin’Down’:**

”I’m coming to get you now (cheers)....I’m gonna warm up your little tootsies.....it’s my business up here....man....alright, here we go (singalong)....sounds good, Denver.... (?)....Pavarotti, look out out there.....here’s a song about ....growing old....that’s right....bring it down a little bit, boys.....I mean...being that today is (cheers).....my b-b-b-b...my b-b-b-b....the day I was born (cheers).....36 now, man (cheers)...that’s old (chuckles)...anybody else my age out there ? (cheers)....man....but I feel young tonight (cheers)...I feel handsome (cheers)....I feel at my sexual peak (cheers)....oh yeah (giggles)...oh man.....I got some inspiration from the Big Man, he’s 44 (cheers).... like he always maintains his youthful beauty somehow.....when it’s your birthday, man, that’s a drag, I mean people coming up to you all day .... singing Happy Birthday and calling you the birthday boy and....’you’re looking like the monkey and you are one too’ and all those rhymes.....all that birthday stuff, man .....anyway....sometimes my back hurts now and I lay in bed at night, you know and ....I always sleep with my guitar....at first my wife didn’t like it but she got used to it (cheers)....you gotta take the whole package (chuckles)....anyway, I feel good and uh .....’cause anyway in the end.... it ain’t nothing but glory days....are you ready, band ? ....are you ready, Denverites ? (cheers)....”
 * 23.09.85 Denver, CO, intro to ‘Glory Days’:**

”This is uh...this is uh....no matter how old you get....you gotta keep searching....for that Promised Land....”
 * 23.09.85 Denver, CO, intro to ‘The Promised Land’:**

”Thanks.....this is uh....this is uh....(?).....every place we go....it seems like....whenever you mention the name of that place.....people always cheer.....I’ll give it a shot..... Denver (cheers).....what did I tell you ? (chuckles)....that works all the time...and I been thinking I guess the (?) reason people cheer is ‘cause they’re proud of where they come from (cheers)...and uh.....I guess I figured from that if that’s the case....they’d be interested in doing stuff (?).....you get a better place to live.....like tonight in the audience we have some representatives...from the Colorado Food Clearing House..... and what that is is that’s a foodbank.....what a foodbank is is every year....here in America 20 percent of the food that gets produced....ends up just getting wasted..... or thrown away....meanwhile in every city and in every state....there’s old folks....whose social security checks don’t get ‘em through the month.....they got to decide between buying themselves medicine or food.....these young kids ain’t getting.....right nutritious kinda food....there’s single mothers raising their kids on their own, they could use some help...there’s folks that been hit hard by unemployment....they’ve dropped through the safety net into the bottom....and uh....with the cutbacks in social spending.....these folks need all the help that they can get....what a foodbank does is it gets the food that would normally be wasted....and it gets it out to the agencies that serve the people.....the Colorado Food Clearing House tonight’s gonna have food that’s gonna serve....gonna serve Boulder, gonna serve Cheyenne, (?) (cheers)..... Colorado Springs (cheers)....(?)(cheers)....and uh.....these are the people that are out there every day making some of these ideas that I’m singing about....real in people’s lives....and without them, what I’m doing up here tonight is really just a....just a bunch of words.....they’re the ones (?) little bit, little bit, just a little bit closer....to whatever Promised Land is....(?)....it’s a real lonely....lonely country....by helping these folks out.....I think you’ll make it a little less lonely for everybody.....and you get to make Denver....and all the Colorado out there.....a fairer place to live for all of its citizens (cheers)...when you go out into the lobby tonight, you’re gonna see the phone number for the Colorado Food Clearing House and some numbers for the foodbanks that are nearest to your town ....those are on a little tearsheet, you can tear it off and stick it in your pocket and take it home.....or you can write that number down.....so...you oughta do something about it because in the end this is your hometown (cheers)....”
 * 23.09.85 Denver, CO, intro to ‘My Hometown’:**

(after the singalong) ” Very good, you little icemen out there.....”
 * 23.09.85 Denver, CO, intro to ‘Hungry Heart’:**

”I always remember....growing up....my folks always....working so hard.....my mom..... always going down....to the finance company.....borrowing money....for Christmas.... getting it paid just in time to....borrow money for Easter and getting it paid back..... just in time to borrow money for our school clothes.....it never seemed like it bothered her....but I always remember it bothered my dad....and he’d sit at night at the kitchen table....like something was dying inside of him.....and I’d watch him till I felt like..... there was something dying inside of me....and I’d lay up in bed at night thinking that.... if something didn’t happen that I was just gonna.....that someday I was just gonna.... if something didn’t happen....feeling like I was just.....like someday I’d just.....like someday I’d just.....like I was just gonna.....just gonna.....”
 * 23.09.85 Denver, CO, intro to ‘I’m on Fire’:**

”Temptation.....do you know what I’m talking about ? (cheers)....sin.....have you heard about it ? (cheers)....(?)....because this is a song about temptation.....it’s about the conflict.....between worldly things and spiritual health.....between the desires of the flesh and I’m talking about sexual desires (cheers).....and spiritual ecstasy...now, where did this all begin ?.....well, it began in the beginning in a place called the Garden of Eden.....I’d like to introduce one of the world’s foremost scholars.....to come out and help me with this discussion.....now....the Garden of Eden was originally believed to have been located in Mesopotamia....somewhere about there.....but the latest theological studies, and you’re gonna read about this any day, have found that its actual location was ten miles south of Jersey City, off the New Jersey Turnpike (cheers).....and that , ladies and gentlemen, is why they call it the Garden State (cheers)....but now look.....in the Garden of Eden , there were none of the accoutrements of modern living.....oh no, you couldn’t go home tonight and jump in with that nice little electric blanket.....get that little ham-and-cheese sandwich out of the icebox, jump in the sack with your baby and watch David Letterman (cheers).... oh no !.....you couldn’t go down to the highway and buy a cheeseburger if you wanted one.....no !....in the Garden of Eden there was no sin.....there was no sex (boos)....man lived in a state of innocence.....when it comes to no sex, I prefer the state of guilt that I constantly live in (cheers)....but now, the Garden of Eden was filled with many wonderous things, there was a Tree of Knowledge.....of Good and Evil, got everybody in trouble.....there was a man, Adam and there was a woman, Eve and she looked so fine and when Adam kissed her, it was the first time that a man had ever kissed a woman (cheers)....she had legs that were long and soft to the touch and when Adam touched her, it was the first time that a man had ever touched a woman (cheers)....and then she touched him.....and it was the first time that a woman had ever touched a man (cheers)....oh yeah....and then he snuggled up real close to her and he started to sweet talk her, he said ‘Oh, Evie, I love you so’ (cheers)....and they went walking out to the green fields.....and they lay down (cheers).....and when Adam.....well, let’s just say it was the first time for that too (cheers).....but there was something else in the Garden of Eden on that day, old Satan came slithering up on his belly and somehow he turned their sweet love into a betrayal and sent them running down in the darkness below.... but that’s alright because right here tonight on this backlot, I’ve got their getaway car (cheers)...and for 99.95 and no money down, don’t worry if you got bad credit ‘cause it’s good here, we’ll finance, we’ll take a chance on you, our trust is in you, if you got the nerve to ride......I’ve got the keys....to the first.....pink....Cadillac (cheers)....”
 * 23.09.85 Denver, CO, intro to ‘Pink Cadillac’:**

”Oh thanks.....yeah......I’d like to just take a minute and uh.....thank everybody for coming down the show tonight, thank you very much (cheers)....once again I apologise to you folks that are here that were supposed to be here last night, I hope we didn’t inconvenience you too much......and uh.....I’d like to thank you for, uh....spending my birthday with me (chuckles)(cheers)....yeah, nice birthday party.....I’d like to uh...I’d like to do this next song for you, this is....I guess about the greatest song .....that’s ever been written about America.....it’s by Woody Guthrie.....and what´s so great about it is it, it’s a song that gets right to the heart.....of the promise of what our country was supposed to be about.....that´s a promise that.....as we sit here tonight, is eroding for.... many of our fellow Americans, I don´t know if you talk to.....steelworkers....in Pittsburgh (?), I don’t know if they believe that this song is true anymore....and I’m not sure that it is....but I know that it oughta be.....and uh.....I guess I’d like to do this for you tonight wishing you all.....the longest life.....and the best of absolutely everything (cheers).....and uh.....reminding you that with countries, just like with people, it’s easy to let the best of yourself slip away.....”
 * 23.09.85 Denver, CO, intro to ‘This Land Is Your Land’:**

”Is it getting warmer out there yet ? (cheers).....good because.....we keep rocking.....till you start dropping there..... (....) Little bit closer.....little bit closer....now, come a little bit closer.....and tell me.....am I your kinda man, baby ? (cheers).....am I your kinda man, girl ? (cheers).....the mature type (chuckles)..... (....) Everybody all nice and cozy now ? (cheers).....(?)....get that blood rising.....”
 * 23.09.85 Denver, CO, intro to ‘Twist and Shout’:**

”We’re gonna miss them Kojak re-runs, you see, we gotta......(?)....oh, can’t go now, I just got warm, alright .....so you think you’re tough, huh ? (cheers)....so you think you can take us, huh ? (cheers)....oh yeah....oh yeah....oh yeah......”
 * 23.09.85 Denver, CO, intro to ‘Stand on It’:**

”Are you ready to testify ?.... (.....) Next stop....Denver tomorrow night......”
 * 23.09.85 Denver, CO, intro to ‘Traveling Band’:**

//Compiled by : Johanna Pirttijärvi//